


Sister: An Audience of One

by punkmaifly



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alcohol, F/F, Humor, I wouldn't call this angst, Misunderstandings, Pre Relationship, attempts at alcohol?, but i guess that's the term, but she doesn't hate his guts or anything, mai does not actually physically appear in this fic, mailee, no beta we die like jet, or at least attempts at humor, ranting, ty lee attempts to drink wine, ty lee does not ship maiko so be prepared for anti-zuko propaganda, ty lee's sister is confused but she's got the spirit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:59:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29481831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkmaifly/pseuds/punkmaifly
Summary: Ty Lee rants to her sister about Zuko, who is suddenly dating Mai.She doesn't understand, but she's doing her best.
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Ty Lee (Avatar) & Original Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	Sister: An Audience of One

For a family of eight, the house was oddly empty this evening. 

Kanon, a natural extrovert, felt like she was drowning in the silence. Her youngest sisters, Ichi and Ni, the twins, were away at boarding school, and her oldest sister, Koge, had moved out not even two months ago. Kanon didn’t know where the second eldest sister, Kaori, could possibly be, but she didn’t really care. They had never really gotten along. Hanako, on the other hand, was Kanon’s best friend. Her (literal) sister in arms. She was closest in age with Kanon, only a year older, but she was out for the evening with her boyfriend. When she got back, Kanon was planning on pestering her to tell her everything, but who knows when that would be? Until then, Kanon had nothing to do! She felt like she was in a waiting room in her own house.

Until she heard a shout and a crash from the back room.

Kanon, quick as a whip, stumbled to her feet from where she was lying on the floor in the kitchen. Good in a crisis, she pulled the longest knife out of its stand, and took a few steps towards the door of the cellar. It had been silent since the crash, but now she heard some more noises: bumps and angry mutterings.

On second thought, she didn’t really want to fight this person. Keeping the knife in hand, she made a dash for the front door, but then the door to the back room slid open aggressively, revealing the person behind it.

Oh right, Ty Lee was home.

She had an unopened bottle of wine in one hand, a metal cup in the other, and a fearsome grimace on her face. Maybe Kanon didn’t want to interact with her sister, either.

Ty Lee caught sight of Kanon, where she had frozen mid-escape, knife clenched in hand. “What are you doing?” She asked, and despite her frown, it came out calmly curious.

Ty Lee had not been home in a while. Kanon didn’t know the details, but she knew Ty Lee had run off to join the circus (judging by the long, long letter she had left behind for her mother and sisters), and then was recruited by the princess of the nation to find the prince and the Avatar. This was the sixth day that Ty Lee was home, and Kanon still hadn’t asked her what that, certainly exciting, escapade had been like. Probably because she kept forgetting her younger sister was home.

Kanon arranged her posture to be more poised. “Sorry, I thought you were a burglar, or an assassin.”

Ty Lee sighed, “That’s a bread knife.”

Kanon narrowed her eyes, waiting for Ty Lee to elaborate.

Ty Lee sighed again, heavily, and stalked towards the low table, “Of all the knives in the kitchen, you chose the worst one to fight anybody off.”

“Oh,” Kanon looked at the knife. “Well, you would know,” she conceded. 

Ty Lee grumbled her response. Which was not at all like Ty Lee. In the months before joining the circus, she had been kind of bummed out, Kanon could tell, but she still tried to be cheerful, and she was still kind. These past six days, though, it was like she was a different person. A crabbier person.

Kanon dropped onto a cushion next to her sister. “What was chasing the prince and the Avatar like? Besides exciting.” Kanon smiled warmly, hoping the attention and distraction would cheer Ty Lee up.

“A real joy. Fun from start to finish. The prince is a real cherry-peach of a guy.” Ty Lee tugged at the cork stoppering the bottle, her face screwed up in concentration. She grunted, “And the Avatar? Doesn’t even live up to the legends. Beating him was lickety-split easy, especially for the perfect princess of this perfect nation.”

Sarcasm. This was new. Kanon, dumbfounded, blinked at the bottle sitting on the table in front of them. “You shouldn’t be drinking, Ty Lee. You’re fourteen.”

Ty Lee snorted, “If I can go to war and fight the Avatar, I can drink whatever I want.”

Fair point. Still, a good sister wouldn't let their sibling drink a bottle of wine out of angst at such a young age. “Yeah, but maybe you can do something else. Have you hung out with your friends at all since being home?”

“I hung out with my friends for three months while traveling the world,” Ty Lee reminded her, taking the knife where Kanon had laid it on the table.

“I meant _other_ friends,” Kanon clarified, eyeing her sister and the knife warily, “Ones you haven’t seen since joining the circus.”

Ty Lee harrumphed, “Mai and Azula are my only friends,” She tried to fit the tip of the knife in between the cork and the mouth of the thick glass of the bottle. “Unless you count _Zuko_ , I guess,” She added, bitterly.

Kanon decided not to address the snarl that Ty Lee adopted when referring to Zuko. She supposed that chasing someone around the world must change your perception of them. “Well, you could stay here and tell me about your adventures,” Kanon said, hopefully.

Ty Lee, unable to fit the knife in the opening of the bottle, took to stabbing it into the top of the cork. “No thanks, I’d rather go third wheel while Zuko and Mai make out.”

“Oh, they’re dating?” Kanon asked, intrigued.

Ty Lee kind of growled, and a bit of cork flew onto the tabletop.

Kanon decided that she’d better address this. “Not too happy about that, huh?”

Without even a hint of sarcasm, Ty Lee asked, “What makes you say that?”

Kanon leveled her younger sister with a look, and in lieu of answering, said, “You should probably use a corkscrew instead of a bread knife,” jerking her chin to the mangled cork wedged in the neck of the bottle.

Ty Lee let out a frustrated groan and got to her feet, preparing to search the shelves and drawers. “Why are you even hanging out with me anyway?” She asked, some of the bitterness evaporated from her tone. “Where’s Hanako?”

Kanon sighed, “On a date with her boyfriend.”

After hearing the word “boyfriend,” Ty Lee slammed the drawer she had been digging through. “Stupid friggin’ boyfriends,” She grumbled, unwilling to say the actual swear. “Taking all of everyone’s time. I mean, what’s so great about a boyfriend anyway?” She reached up, feeling around the top shelf for the corkscrew, too short to see. “He’s just a stupid _guy_ , and I can’t believe _anyone_ would want to date him!”

Kanon didn’t interrupt, settling herself in for a long monologue. Ty Lee wasn’t prone to angry ranting, but Kanon was used to listening to the girl explain scientific and spiritual concepts in depth for exceedingly long periods of time, which were rants of a different sort. She could only assume this would be similar.

Sure enough, Ty Lee continued, “Every woman I know is always looking for some guy to date, and for what? What do men have that they want so bad, anyway? It’s just silly! We’re teenagers, it’s not like any relationship we could possibly start will work out in the long run. We’re not serious enough! We’re not smart enough to keep one going. Our lives are going to continue in unexpected ways! Well, maybe not for Zuko,” she amended, “His life is pretty much laid out for him now that he’s home and the crown prince.” 

For some reason, Ty Lee had a spatula in her hand now, and she was gesturing wildly with it as she continued opening drawers and slamming them shut again. “Good for him! But, I know _Mai_ wouldn’t want that kind of predictability for the rest of her life! She gets bored so easily, and while I’m _sure_ that dealing with Zuko’s mood swings would spice things up, that’s no way to live! Mai deserves better than to be that emotionally-strained yet explosive idiot’s trophy wife.” Ty Lee drew her hand out of the drawer she had almost buried herself in. “Oh, here’s the fu-, um, bugger.” In her hand that was not clutching the spatula, she triumphantly held the elusive corkscrew.

Kanon waited for Ty Lee to sit down next to her and set down the spatula before carefully saying, “Maybe you shouldn’t call the crown prince an ‘explosive idiot’.”

Ty Lee snorted as she struggled to twist the corkscrew into the mostly shredded, yet somehow intact, cork. “Well, he is. Besides, it’s not like anyone cares. If he was assassinated tomorrow, the Firelord would just declare Azula crown princess and move on.”

A crease embedded itself between Kanon’s eyebrows. “Then, why did he send you all to go find him and bring him home?”

That made Ty Lee pause, and she turned to her sister in confusion, “That was to stop him from catching the Avatar.”

Kanon just stared at her alarmingly politically competent sister.

Ty Lee shook her head dismissively, “Trust me. We can bad mouth Zuko all we want.”

“I don’t want to talk shit about Prince Zuko,” She squinted, “Why do you hate him, anyway?”

Ty Lee looked up, surprised. “I don’t hate him.”

Kanon scoffed, “You just went on a tirade about him.”

Ty Lee turned back to the bottle of wine, and yanked on the screw, but only half of the cork came out of the bottle, the rest crumbled into the red liquid. She huffed in irritation, but poured the (now slightly chunky) drink into the metallic cup. “That doesn’t mean I hate him. I just don’t think he should be dating Mai, that’s all.”

“Why not?” Kanon asked. She remembered when Hanako first started going out. It was frustrating, sharing Hanako with a stranger. Having her sister and closest friend choose some loser over her had hurt. Ty Lee didn’t have as close of a relationship with any of her sisters, but it sounded like she was just as close with Mai. Maybe Kanon could help her out.

Ty Lee took a sip of the red wine, and pulled a face. “Blegh, this is awful.”

“That’s some of Mom’s finest,” Kanon corrected, with a chuckle, “She probably won’t be thrilled that you opened it, then ruined it.” She could see the cork chunks settling at the bottom through the thick glass.

“Where is Mom, anyway?” Ty Lee chirped, her cheerful tone intact once again.

Kanon paused, already regretting the words she would have to say, “I think she’s out with her boyfriend.”

Unsurprisingly, Ty Lee slammed her full cup onto the table, spilling wine onto the dark wood. “Why does everyone have a boyfriend! And why are they out with them all the time!” Her cheerful tone was decidedly gone.

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” Kanon replied, hoping to soothe her sister.

Ty Lee just made a warbled sound of rage, and flopped to the side on the cushions.

An idea occurred to Kanon, and her eyes widened. Maybe this was not _just_ about losing her close friend to the greedy monster that was romance. She leaned over, hoping to make eye contact, “Are you jealous?”

Much to Kanon’s delight, Ty Lee’s cheek turned pink. “ _No_ ,” She insisted.

Kanon’s grin widened, “Ah, you like Zuko.”

Ty Lee opened her mouth in disgust. “ _Ew_ , what?” She scrabbled to a sitting position, snatched up one of the cushions, and swung it around to smack Kanon. “I do _not_ like _Zuko_. He’s a confused, suggestible prick with a stick up his butt! He’s a moody teenager who’s as irritable as a vulture-wasp!” She tried to collect herself enough to come up with a third attack on his character, but Kanon interrupted her.

“So? All your friends are irritable, moody pricks. It’s never been a problem before.” Kanon crossed her arms on the table and smirked at her little sister. She had her all figured out.

Ty Lee wrinkled her nose, “Ugh, can you imagine? Zuko?” She stuck her tongue out and picked a speck of cork off of it.

Kanon just chuckled. She respected Ty Lee’s efforts to convince her that she was not interested in the guy (she was quite the actress), but Kanon simply didn’t believe her. It was cute, actually, seeing her all flustered and jealous like this. Ty Lee had always been so put together and constantly positive, even as a little kid.

“I’m not going to call the crown prince rotten names," Kanon began, gently, "But you’re right. Maybe he and Mai deserve each other, huh?”

“What do you mean?” Ty Lee cocked her head to the side, her eyebrows drawing together. She set the metal cup down in defeat.

“Well, I haven’t seen her in a while, but I remember her being a bit of a snooty, irritable prick of a girl,” Kanon shrugged. She couldn’t understand why a smiley little kid like Ty Lee let that shadow of a girl following her around.

Ty Lee was already shaking her head, flapping her hands in front of Kanon’s face to get her to shut up. “No, Mai isn’t a prick at all. She’s _lovely_. If you had her life, you would be irritable too; she won’t admit it, but she’s had a rough go of things. Besides, she’s really great with the people she cares about. Patient and compassionate, you know? She just doesn’t give her heart away to anybody who passes her on the street.” Ty Lee propped her chin in her hand, quickly lost in her thoughts. “And she’s anything but snooty. She hates high society, even though she’s a part of it. _Especially_ because she’s a part of it. It’s so stifling up here, and Mai just wasn’t built for it.”

Kanon was momentarily stunned by Ty Lee’s sweet defense for Mai, which is probably why she said what she said out loud. “Sounds like she’s dating the wrong person, then.”

Ty Lee threw her hands into the air in exasperation. “ _I know!_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments are appreciated :P


End file.
